After months of reading posts I finally joined and am putting my misery out there hoping someone else has had my experience and can offer me help and/or at least encouragement to hang in there.

22 weeks ago my face started getting burning patches on it, like hives only all over my face and my lips would swell. That was just the beginning…I knew through research on the internet not to even bother going to an MD and self diagnosed Candida (since then confirmed by my Naturpath). I started the diet and enzymes right away and the burning patches on my face spread and burned deeper. It’s like a self induced chemical peel. And when I started first started the diet/supplements, I got so much worse, as to be expected. No energy, flu like feeling, depression…. Then instead of just my face, it spread to my hands, arms, and neck. I became covered in red itchy splotches only where people can see of course – and oh the itching and misery. Oh, and I spent one weekend with an elbow the size of a tennis ball on fire and in agony.

Long story short, I have been working my butt off to get better, have never cheated on the diet, do daily enemas coffee and regular (tmi!), daily detox baths, a plethora of supplements, enzymes, probiotics, weekly acupuncture (just started that 3 weeks ago), and Nystatin oral and topical. Just started Diflucan every other day a week ago out of sheer desperation. And for one glorious day my face came back to 100% normal. Sigh, it was like seeing an old friend in the mirror.

But now I sit face burning off as ever. The progress I HAVE made in 17 weeks of treatment is my arms, hands, neck and chest are about 85% better and my face isn’t as swollen and the red patches are not burning as deep and are smaller, and once in a while my face heals up for a day or so. But right now the flare up I am having on my face is very deep and worse than it’s been in a month so I’m wondering if that is another layer of die off from starting the Diflucan.

I guess I’m just looking for some encouragement. I feel like the 4 doctors I see don’t really “get” how devastating this has been to my life. I read somewhere “Candida doesn’t kill you but it makes you wish you were dead.” I feel like I’ve lost all quality of life, lost my looks and the ability to eat anything really enjoyable virtually overnight. I’ve got to see a light at the end of this tunnel. 22 consecutive weeks of this has got me feeling hopeless.

2 reasons coffee is not recommended… Mold and it stresses the adrenals. The daily coffee enemas could be hard on your already overloaded immune system and feeding the fungus with more fungus. I dont think it matters how many antifungals, enzymes(if u take bitters it stimulates your own enzymes)we throw at this beast if you are still feeding the yeast its not going anywhere. Are u on the website diet or the strict forum diet??

Emsmith, Thanks for the insight on the coffee enemas, I’ve been following the no dairy, no gluten, no sugar, no fruit, no alcohol, no vinegar, no coffee diet and practice food combining. I try to follow The Body Ecology Diet but I do eat brown rice which they don’t recommend. Thanks.

I was on that for a couple weeks before I found this forum…I had felt a little bit better from it, but it wasn’t until I started doing the strict forum diet and protocol(message Able500 for a copy) that I really started seeing a difference. Automatic die-off when I wasn’t getting much before, a lifting of the brain fog, and so much more. Still suffering, but no longer feeling like I want to die (and I was literally making plans to off myself if this didn’t fix me :p)

I TOTALLY hear you on the docs not understanding though…I don’t have any skin symptoms; mine is all in my guts, but before I found out candida was my problem, I literally could not eat anything but eggs and a small amount of brown rice or certain veggies without getting fatigued and sick. I had several doctors say basically “Oh, well, just don’t eat that if it bothers you,” even though I was practically in the office screaming and crying BUT IT’S EVERYTHING!!! They ignore the social implications of this condition and just tell you, “Well, it’s not that bad,” because they haven’t had to deal with it themselves and just see you as a set of symptoms :p It’s bs :p

Anyway…the people and the protocol on this forum have literally saved my life and helped me turn my attitude around so I can get through this. Welcome and I hope you find the same help and support here that I have!

I would examine your liver further; are you taking anything to prevent the die-off from overloading your liver and kidneys with toxins? Is your naturopath doing anything in regards to healing your liver?

Alexalgebra- Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I will get a copy of the strict forum diet…nice to talk to peeps who can relate to this hell, I’ve barely even told anyone what I have wrong with me b/c they think I mean a yeast infection. Candida is definitely a silent epidemic and a lonely suffering, It makes me want to off myself too..thank God I have 2 kids to live for. I just want to get through this and get my life back 😛

Raster – I’m taking a liver support formula by Body Ecology and I’ve been doing the daily coffee enemas to detox my liver…but I didn’t know about Hydrochloric Acid or the Sulphur. Nothing for the liver from my Naturpath but I’ve been seeing a clinical nutritionist who does this digital reading on me with a hand cradle and figures out what vitamins, minerals and supps I need to get balanced. If I could get my skin issues under control and just look like myself again I think I could handle this whole illness better emotionally. I will look into the things you suggest. Thank you.

Juju, i understand how debilitating the skin issues can be. You dont want to go anywhere or be seen by anyone. I had significant skin improvements when i cut the rice. I too want to hear more about the sulphur.

jujublue, keep in mind that mental issues come out hard when your detoxing. I feel so mentally uncomfortable, (depressed, raged, hopeless, self hate) but I know it’s just die off. It’s so much better then not knowing why I’m feeling that way.

I have had burning rashes on my face for a month or two and I finally found out the cause of this. I had been eating at least 3 lemon/limes everyday and apparently my body has an allergy sensitivity to them or citrus in general (Going to the doc next week). This has never really happened to me before except when I was taking “ThreeLac” pro-biotic. And GUESS what???? Lemon is one of the ingredients!!!!!

You need to write down every thing your putting into your body (food, drinks, supplements) and if your issue happens to be related to this you may find the culprit.

This is a bummer because I had an absolute awesome stevia limeade 🙁

Good luck and don’t hesitate to post questions on the forum. We are all in this together, you are not alone.

I’ve never had any food allergies, but I haven’t been tested either. I can’t bear the thought of cutting anything else out of my diet right now, but I also want to get this skin issue fixed. But it’s interesting b/c my skin issues have followed a pattern of flaring up exactly every 7 days for 3-4 days then heal for a couple and then cycle starts again, my nutritionist says that’s the cycle my body must “take the garbage out” and they have been getting slightly better, covering less “real estate” although today was a bad day and I’m attributing it to starting the Diflucan. And interestingly my acupuncturist says they mostly fall on my stomach meridians, which apparently are all over my face, neck and arms.

I’m sorry about your losing your stevia limeade that sounds wonderful. Please let me know if the burning stops when you cut out the lemons and limes. Thanks for the encouragement. 🙂

Its been 5 days since I’ve had citrus and my face is 95% healed (still a little red but no pain). I would get rashes under my eyes and on cheeks. They would itch and burn and were usually the size of a half dollar or bigger.

I also had some what of a pattern. It would seem to heal mostly at the end of a “weeks” period of time then start over again. I was very frustrated one night and I made my limeade. Within about 15 after I could feel my face getting more and more itchy. It all hit me at once, I then referred to my food diery and noticed I always felt worse around my lemons and limes.

Try to listen to your body and note when it feels at its worst. You may start connecting dots….

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